TACKLING SOCIAL EXCLUSION: EVIDENCE FROM CHILE

We study a Chilean programme that combines home visits to households in extreme poverty with guaranteed access to social services. Its goal was to connect marginalised families to the social system to improve their living conditions. Programme impacts are identified using regression discontinuity exploring the fact that eligibility is a discontinuous function of an index of family income and assets. There is no evidence of short or long-term effects on employment or housing. However, we find short and medium-term impacts on the take-up of subsidies and employment services among families without access to the welfare system prior to the intervention.